“What?!?” My five-year old asked, shocked.
Her normal routine had been changed. Fridays meant ballet. And after ballet we would meet with Daddy for dinner at Chick-Fil-A. That’s how it happened most Friday nights and that’s how she expected tonight to happen.
But this was not a normal Friday. This Friday her little brother was sick. And after picking up a feverish little dude from the after-school care, this momma had decided we would be going home.
“But if we don’t go to ballet, then we can’t go to Chick-Fil-A!” She insisted.
The fact that her brother was quiet on this point just proves how sick he was feeling…
“Yeah, we’ll have to do that another time,” I told her.
“Then what are we going to do? That was going to be dinner! And if we can’t go out to eat then we can’t have dinner! Do we even have food at home? How are we going to eat?!?” She asked, half-panicked.
I almost laughed because she’s FIVE. And yes, we have food at home. No one was in danger of starving.
“We have plenty of food at home and you don’t need to worry about not eating. When have we ever had to not-eat because Mommy didn’t want to cook?” I asked. I mean, really, she had no reason to be so concerned. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t provided all the meals she’s ever needed from the minute she was born.
And that’s when it hit me, as if God was tapping me on the shoulder with a teasing little smirk, “Don’t you tend to get anxious over the things I’ve promised to provide?”
Well, crap. Yes, I do. It never felt so ridiculous as when I watched my five-year-old try to carry the anxiety of meal planning.
Especially now, with all the uncertainty in the world around us, how often do we try to take on the nervousness of the what-ifs when God has already promised to take care of it? And what good does it do us to worry?
About as much good as a five-year-old freaking out about meal prep.
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:25-34